25/11/2011 - River Soar

Have to say that I really enjoyed this little session. Was out the door at 1215 hrs and was fishing within 45 minutes. Passed a couple of blokes on the way up to the swim. They were sat out in a stiff downstream wind and didn't look too comfortable, so I wasn't suprised when they said that the fishing was "bloody rubbish"! Wasn't put off as I knew where I was headed would be nice and sheltered. Once settled I got the float rod going and was into dace, chub and roach almost straight away. Soon had the paternoster rod nicely positioned at the bottom end of the swim.

Promising

Didn't have to wait long, but it wasn't what I was hoping for - a micro jack not much bigger than the bait! Had two more of these annoyances before I got a perch, but even that had eyes bigger than its belly.

Greedy!

Had been keeping the float rod going all this time and had increased my species count to seven with some bleak and gudgeon when the float buried and I was connected to something considerably bigger. By the head banging I knew it was a decent perch. Got taken over the other side of the river and back and had a heart-stopping moment when it dived into some reeds, but it was soon safely in the net - a dark, strongly coloured fish of 2lb 2oz and easily my biggest perch on "conventional" tackle.

First Soar 2lber

Carried on with the float rod until it was too dark to see. Added a small bream and a couple of minnows to push up the species count to nine. Left the paternoster rod in a bit longer, but apart from an aborted take (probably another micro pike!) that was it. As I said at the start, an enjoyable session just in terms of the number and type of fish caught. The river certainly seems healthy enough given that flows have been so low all year. The big perch was a bonus, but with just a bit of food for thought in that it came on red maggot. Might be time to bring out the lobs!

20/11/2011 - Trent and Mersey Canal

Arranged to meet Tim for another go for the zander on the canal, although he was still on Sunday lunch duty when I arrived. Set up to one side of the "hotspot" so he could slot in the other. Was fishing hair-rigged deadbait sections again, but this time with the addition of a Fox bait flag to stop the wire pulling through the bait.

Modified hair rig

Had got one rod in and was tackling up the other when the buzzer sounded. That was quick!Turned out to be a small, but perfectly formed zander.

Zed in a hurry!

Was expecting a few runs after this, but didn't get any other indications until Tim arrived. He'd just dropped his gear next to me when one and then the other bobbin started doing a jerky little dance. Although neither developed into a full blown take, we joked that it must be the aura of his golden globes attracting the fish. Unfortunately this turned out to be bang on the money as my bobbins never moved again! Tim, on the other hand, did a canal predator treble starting with a pike of 11lb, followed by a nice perch of 2lb 6oz and finally a zed.

Predator #2



Fished on for a couple more hours into dark without any further action.

As an interesting footnote to these zander trips, Tim dug out a paper recently on a study of zander in the Oxford Canal, a graph from which is shown below.

Basically, in the zander populated section of canal, anything they can get in their mouths gets a right hammering and in some cases this can mean whole year (size) classes. Ultimately this will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the predator population, so it could be a case of making hay while the sun shines!

11/11/2011 - River Derwent

I always seem to lose focus and struggle a bit at this time of year. It seems such a huge step change when the clocks go back, with that lost hour making all the difference. No more crafty afternoon sessions after work. Instead, everything has to be meticulously planned to make best use of my remaining annual leave, so it's annoying when a trip doesn't deliver the goods. Such was the case with the latest session on the Derwent. Forecast was for the best weather of the week. However, as it turned out it was cold, drizzly, never got light all day and yet again there was that annoying upstream wind. The saving grace was that the conditions didn't stop the silver fish feeding, with a mixed bag of roach, dace, chub, bleak and gudgeon coming to the float rod. It was the predators that didn't show. Had two paternoster rods out for the last two hours, but didn't get a sniff. Not even a suicidal jack or greedy perchlet. Just about said it all when I wound in one of the rods to pack up to find a bare hook and realised I'd probably been fishing for half an hour without any bait! Still, there's always retail therapy to cheer oneself up and I'm particularly finding myself drawn into the world of rubber! I recently got some great looking shads off Allan Mee at http://www.agmdiscountfishing.co.uk/. They're the 3" Big Hammers (the bottom one in the picture is a great minnow imitation and will get an outing on the Derwent when the weed dies down).

A three pack of rubbers please

Also splashed out on some larger crayfish imitations that will hopefully get me a bigger fish or two on the River Soar, which is now riddled with signal crayfish. At a few quid per packet and the same for the worm hooks and jig heads they make far more economical sense than an extortionately priced piece of Japanese plastic!

Eat me!

Did have some good news at the weekend. Tim reported that the zander on the canal were still feeding well, so hopefully it'll back to normal service and a few fish on the bank soon!

Tim with the best fish of a recent session

23/10/2011 - River Derwent

A rare weekend outing, but thought I'd make the best of the mild weather and got a pass out for the afternoon. Headed for Borrowash, the scene of my  recent perch brace. Had a bit of suprise when I got there. The carpark was unlocked, but completely devoid of any other anglers. Was therefore able to stroll down at leisure knowing that the area I wanted to fish would be free. Had changed a lot in appearance since last time. All of the Himalyan Balsam had either died down or been eaten by the sheep, so the banks seemed very open, but could still see the weed beds in the margins. Set up in the usual spot, which turned out to be a good thing in one respect. Saw something glinting in the silt and pulled out a pair of my glasses that I must have dropped last session! Bit brown with algae, but otherwise fine.

Result!

The strong, gusty (but warm) upstream wind played hell with the float rod, but luckily the bleak didn't seem to mind my rubbish presentation and I soon had a few in the bucket. Expecting things to be a bit slower, I forced myself to put the float rod away and set up two paternosters. Had two finnicky, dropped takes on each rod before I had my first proper take. Turned out to be a perch of 1lb 15oz, possibly a recapture as I've had three near this weight out of the same swim.

Familiar?

Went a bit quiet after this, so the next take came out of the blue and made me jump! Wound down to feel something solid on the end that took off at a rate of knots downstream. After a bit of tussle (during which I was praying for the other rod not to go off!), I had a long, lean pike of 11lb 8oz in the net. 

Lean and mean

Two greedy little perch of about 3/4 lb followed before it got dark. Suspect it won't be too long now before the weed dies down and the big perch go off to their winter haunts.

21/10/2011 - Trent and Mersey Canal

Met up with Tim again for a late afternoon/evening session on the Trent and Mersey Canal near Burton upon Trent for another bash at the zander. Arrived to find that we'd been beaten to the "prime" peg opposite the marina entrance by a matter of minutes by a husband and wife team, so dropped in a bit further up, trying our best to avoid the huge piles of dog eggs littering the towpath. Soon had various deadbaits positioned upstream and downstream. Tim got out his whip and his bread punch and was soon doing a passable imitation of a matchman, pulling out some clonking roach from the very first trot down. The deadbait rods, however, remained silent. Had to do the "zander hokey-cokey" a few times for passing barges. The last one was a hire boat that came in diagonally through our swims and pulled up just the other side of Tim, whereupon a chap jumped off and started hammering mooring pegs into the bank. Don't you just love 'em?! Saw matey down at the marina peg catch a couple of decent pike, but it wasn't until it was fully dark that we had our first fish in the net, a perch of about a pound to Tim (yet another one on deadbait). At about 7 o'clock the crew from the hire boat decided to go for tea at the pub and just as they walked past my left hand rod the alarm stuttered into life. Was quickly onto it and felt a reasonable fish kicking on the end. Turned out to be our target species and just as Tim was netting it my other rod shot off. Hit that one as well and soon had another, smaller zander in the net alongside the first.  

Quick fire brace

Got the rods back out quickly hoping that was a sign that the zander were on the prowl, but it went quiet again. The only other action was a pike of about 6lb to Tim. He seems to be developing a relationship with this fish, recognisable by a distinctive sore on one flank, as he has managed to catch it now on three different trips from three different spots! At 8.30 pm, having had no further indications, we packed up and walked back to the car through the dog egg minefield. Unfortunately, a strange smell in the car and a quick check when I got home revealed that I hadn't emerge unscathed!    

13/10/2011 - River Soar

Had intended to go for a perch session on the Derwent. However, it was the colour of chocolate when I dropped in at Borrowash, so it was a quick 10 mile trip over the other side of the M1 to the River Soar at Kegworth instead. Had just started to walk up to the top of the section when I happened to glance downstream. There was quite a bit of fish activity on the bottom meadow and time was ticking on, so I turned around and down headed there instead. Set up in a nice little bay with a willow downstream and a bed of "whips" upstream. First trot down with the float rod saw a roach on, which was quickly transferred to the paternoster rod. This was placed just off the willow. Carried on trotting and was soon catching roach and perch, most of which were too large to comfortably use as bait. Wasn't long before the paternoster rod was away, resulting in a feisty little jack.

Pikey

A new bait dropped into the same spot saw a rapid take from another small pike that looked me in the eye and then spat a very mangled roach back at me. Third cast and it was away again. Pike! This one stayed on, but tail-walked straight into the bank and had to be extricated from the vegetation. Bites on the float rod had not suprisingly dried up by now, so I moved upstream and re-positioned the paternoster alongside the reed bed. Again, it was only in a few minutes before it was away, resulting in.......yet another pike. Had one bait left by now, which was put back into the same area. It had just started to get dark when the bobbin dropped off. I've caught enough perch using braid now to know when I've got a decent one on. This was such a time. Unfortunately, I never got to see it as it came off! "Oh dear!" or words to that effect. Again, the pike were good fun on the light gear, but it was annoying to lose that fish. Worth another go.

09/10/2011 - North Devon

Headed down to Saunton, North Devon last weekend with the lads for our bi-annual surfing trip. Unfortunately, the same miserable conditions that knocked the surfing on the head also ruined any chance I might have had of catching a bass this time. Had arranged to meet up with Joel Squires, aka "Joel Soul", on the Sunday for another lure session. Joel was optimistic and things looked good as we walked out to the rock mark near Woolacombe in the first light. However, after waiting patiently for the tide to recede and allow us down onto the rocks, we only had a few casts before the rising swell forced us off again. A trip to a different mark on the north coast in the afternoon saw better conditions early on, but the swell, the wind (and two lost plugs!) again proved too much. Thanks to Joel for trying. It'll be third time lucky I'm sure.

Plugging away